Last Day at Home

Just as we were getting comfortable at our own home, sadly, we have to leave our home.

After playing badminton with my brother and sister-in-law, my husband and I went to Sta. Ana to attend their fiesta. It was May 12, 2004. When seated to have our dinner, my husband's phone rang. It was her mom giving us the bad news. Our home was robbed. The caretaker of my husband's apartment called his uncle who called his mom who called us to inform us of what happened.

We did not eat our dinner anymore and went home right away.

Omar's relatives are there waiting for us to comfort us. I was shaking when I saw our bedroom. More than what was lost, it was the thought that a stranger intruded our home, rummaging our personal belongings with his hands!

Jewelries, watches, and cash were stolen. Our neighbor next to us heard our gate open late in the afternoon, thinking that it was me since I usually arrive at around that time (imagine if I was already home and somebody will sneak into our home, so creepy). Early in the evening, they saw our lights from the bedroom switched on (so the burglar stayed from sun up to sun down). We even saw drippings of juice at our kitchen floor (the burglar even managed to get juice from our ref to cool him down, he must be so stressed). They did not bother to get some of our appliances anymore.

That same night, we did not sleep in our home anymore. We stayed at my brother's house. The following day, we packed our things and went home to my parent's house again to stay.

It's so sad to leave the place, not because I came to love it already, because that's where Omar and I started to have our life together. We will have to start all over again - this time securely.

First Day at Home

After weeks of preparing our apartment at Mandaluyong, we finally decided to stay for good!!! We usually stayed for a day to fix things and go home at the end of the day. We even served lunch to my in-laws during the Edsa anniversary as our house-warming, more of like a dry run to know which things we still need for our home.

It was Omar's uncle's and aunt's wedding anniversary on Feb. 28, 2004. It was celebrated at Discovery Suites. And after the party, we went to our home.

We slept at the bed foam - bed frame was not yet installed. We prepared our own breakfast. We had fun.

It was nice having our own for the first time. Our own home, our own time, just the two of us.

Honeymoon Day

February 1, 2004: First day as husband and wife

We were eyeing Star Cruises for our honeymoon. Unfortunately, the scheduled cruise starts on January 31, so we spent it at Singapore instead.

Omar and I went for a city tour, Sentosa Tour, Night Safari Tour, and Johor-Baru Tour.

We met Omar's friend - Alvin, and he treated us out for dinner with his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Jane.

We very seldom spent our days together as bf-gf since my parents were strict. It was a new experience for us spending days together. So new that my husband was not used to sleeping with somebody else that on the third night, he asked for my permission if he could sleep on the floor!!! Grrrr!!

On our way home, my in-laws fetched us from the airport. We went straight to my parent's house where we will be staying in the mean time while the apartment at Mandaluyong was being renovated. We opened all our gifts in front of our parents.

After opening all the gifts, my husband was saying good-bye to me and my mom for he is going home with his parents!!! Huh?! He said he wanted to catch up some sleep since he wasn't able to get some sleep - NOT from what you're thinking - but because he is not used to sleeping with somebody else. Of course he wasn't allowed to go home.

It was days spent happily together, getting to know each other, planning our days ahead together, planning not only for our married life, but for our family life as well.

Wedding Day

'So it's You' were being sung when I walked the aisle on January 31, 2004 to my now-husband, Omar. As I was trying really hard to stop myself from crying when I saw Omar wiping his tears, hiding behind his best man and his mom. A surge of happiness swelled inside me that tears inside me froze and I smiled all my way to the altar.

I got ready for my wedding at Edsa Shangri-la Hotel. My bridal gown was from Patis Tesoro, while my make-up artist then was Cocoy. The photographer was Pierre Oliver Cruz and the videographer was Visual Studio.

We got married at Mary the Queen Parish at San Juan. The celebration was held at 3:00pm, led by Monsignor Flint and Fr. Albert.

My aunt generously offered me Gazebo Royale as venue for our wedding reception for free. It's a very nice place for events and it was new that time so it will be the first time for all our guests to visit the place! We grabbed it the first time it was offered. Hizon's Catering provided us with the sumptuous dinner buffet with lechon baka from my parents. Everybody loved the over-flowing food.

Ojay, Omar's brother, led the program. He prepared the AVP - I'll try to grab a copy so I can post it here, Papa Oka sang, my cousin and Omar's friend sang too, and of course the surprise number of all my brothers-in-law as they sang 'I do'.

It was a day prepared for months. A day that will make a difference. A day that will start the new chapter of my life. It was remembered, not only be me and my husband, but our families, friends, and relatives who happily shared the moments with us.